While OSU was once referred to as the “Princeton of the Plains”, Ivy Leaguers don’t grow on the cypress trees around Theta Pond.
(Jim) Knowles brings with him an Ivy League mind, having graduated from Cornell, where he later was the head coach. And he brings a defense that is complex in its schemes, but simplified in the manner by which players learn it.
“He’s a technician,” Brown said. “We’re playing offenses that run 100 different formations. Every call that we can make has to be able to adjust to those formations. So he sets up principles that run through our entire defensive scheme that when we see a formation, we know on principle how this play adjusts.